The burden of the present and its critics

Abstract

This article responds to the criticisms that have been made of the author's book, The Burden of the Present. Criticisms have come chiefly from reviewers defending radical perspectives. The article takes up, in turn, criticism of the The Burden of the Present's characterisations of the liberal and radical schools of historians of South Africa, the methods the book uses to analyse liberal and radical perspectives, and its relation to the problems of objectivity and present‐mindedness. In the process of its response the article comments on various general issues concerning the writing of South African history.